Not for nothin, but shouldn’t they create some jobs before they’re given that honorary title?
I suppose if anyone’s interested in putting numbers behind this little argument, here are historical federal income tax rates. (PDF.) With only occasional exceptions the year-by-year changes are not dramatic.
I would be entirely on board with reducing the salary for all congressmen and presidents, plus reducing the size of their staffs - cough - I mean, limiting the number of staff people they can hire, reducing their sick days and vacation time, cutting their travel expenses, privatizing their security details (including eliminating their post-office details) and slashing their pensions. Somehow, when Republican congressmen start talking about cutting federal employment, they never include their own federal compensation. Funny how that works, isn’t it.
Oh, I don’t know. We went from a 50% TMR in 1986 to 35% today. That’s a pretty dramatic drop.
Out of curiosity, how are your computations done? Your estimates are on the same order as this random guy’s (civilian salary for him being about 7.3% of the 2010 federal budget), and his procedure makes sense as a first pass, but I’m wondering if there are official totals out there somewhere.
“Year-by-year” being the operative portion of my phrasing. Occasional big jumps — but very little happening otherwise — does not necessarily seem consistent with “continual slashing”. Perhaps I’m being nitpicky.
…for the Chinese.
Can’t find my source again, but it was $180B for non-military salaries out of $3.5T budget
Could you name for me one serious economist not associated with a right-wing think-tank who actually believes that keeping tax cuts on the wealthiest is more stimulative in the current economy than government spending is?
It is just a senseless right wing meme. Investment companies are decrying that the rich are sitting on 3.5 trillion dollars they will not invest. They are not creating jobs when there is no demand. So rightys think ,if they had 5 trillion maybe they will start hiring or investing? it is illogical and wrong.
Significant demand is created at the middle class and lower levels. Trickle down does not work. that experiment has been tried since Reagan. The data is in. It does not work.
The deal should have included significant hikes in taxes to the rich.
Obama has just issued an executive order mandating that health insurers provide birth control to women with no co-pay.
Insurance plans will also be required to provide breast pumps for nursing women, screening for the cervical cancer virus, and counseling for domestic violence victims. There’s a grandfather period before it all kicks in and an exception for insurance plans offered to employees by religious institutions.
This probably deserves its own thread … but I think the timing off the announcement is completely related to the debt deal, which I know Obama knows isn’t making his progressive supporters jump for joy. This announcement might be a bit of sugar for us progressives to go with the glass of lukewarm spit that is the debt deal. It’s also a reminder to us - no conservative would ever enact something like this, and Obama, for all his flaws, has a lot health insurance changes coming up and we need to stick with him if we don’t want it all undone.
He’s got some serious brass ones, I’ll give him that.
For heaven’s sake, you elected someone with no managerial or leadership experience, and now you are all bent out of shape because he can’t manage or lead.
Surprise, surprise - someone who has never served a full term in Congress shows that he sucks at shepherding legislation thru Congress. Imagine that.
Regards,
Shodan
He isn’t a legislator, he’s the President. He doesn’t “shepherd” shit, that’s not his job. Remember, we talked about this? Legislative, Executive, Judicial? Think carefully, now. Take your time. No hurry.
I (an Obama supporter) think there are plenty of shots to be taken without having to make up new ones.
So what’s John Boehner’s excuse?
It’s what the Aussies call a “cuppa”.
What exactly is the option when the people you are bargaining with are perfectly ok with letting the country go down in flames? Obama caves because there are no other options. The republicans will gladly destroy the country if they don’t get their way, was caving on the debt deal better or worse than defaulting?
I think you are. Probably the operative word you’re picking at is “slashing,” which implies large cuts, but it is true that since 1993 we have consistently either lowered the tax rate or raised the brackets, which is effectively the same thing. They may not be large cuts, but every single year has included a cut of some magnitude.
Glenn Greenwald at Salon thinks the president is getting what he wants. Given Obama’s repeated capitulation he is either stupid or a conservative pretending to be a liberal. I do not think the president is stupid.
Also, to the OP, when does the Narwhal bacon?
Also, the sumbitch keeps spamming my Twitter feed. It’s great that you’re down with the internet and all but Twitter is not the place for making actual arguments, Mr. President.